Glucose and fructose are the monosaccharides which are liberated upon the hydrolysis of sucrose. Glucose, also known as dextrose, is an aldohexose which is produced commercially from starch, especially corn starch, by the food processing industry. Fructose, also called levulose, is a ketohexose which is not present in significant concentrations in starch-derived syrups and sugars. However, because fructose is sweeter than glucose, it is desirable to convert at least part of the glucose in the starch-derived syrup or sugar to fructose to give the product the taste characteristics of cane or beet sugar. The isomerization of glucose to fructose may be accomplished by the use of various alkaline catalysts or by means of an enzymatic conversion. Alkaline catalysis, although widely used in the past, gives rather low yields and also produces undesirable by-products which effect the quality of the syrup. As a result of these drawbacks, enzymatic conversions using a glucose isomerase have become increasingly popular.
A number of glucose isomerases have been isolated from different species of microorganisms. Glucose isomerase has been produced by microorganisms from the generae Streptomyces, Actinoplanes, Bacillus, Flavobacterium, Brevibacterium, Arthrobacter, Nocardia, Micromonospora, Microbispora, and Microellobospora. Disadvantages of using an enzyme conversion of glucose to fructose reside in the cost of producing the enzyme and the sensitivity of the enzyme to environmental parameters. Isomerase preparations are usually inactivated by higher temperatures, so relatively low temperatures must be used to carry out the isomerization. Thus, longer overall reaction times are necessary than would be required if the isomerization could be carried out at a higher temperature. In addition, immobilization techniques necessary to recover the isomerase during processing are limited to those employing only mild temperature conditions. Therefore, a glucose isomerase having good heat stability is especially preferred.